Chris Dick and James Wallace proved themselves master tacticians at the end of March at the Biddenden Road Race, pulling off a stunning win in the process. James selflessly spent the majority of the race at the front of the pack chasing down breaks and generally keeping the pace high, leaving Chris to conserve his energies for the nail-biting finale. Chris takes up the story:

“With 5km to go a guy from San Fairy Anne attacked hard off the front and I followed to get on his wheel… to his frustration I pretty much sat there not willing to take the lead but made a deal with him that I’d do the work up the hill leading us toward the finish. A third of the way up he bonked, and I was left with a horrible feeling thinking I had blown it seeing the group gradually edging closer and closer as I approached the crest with my legs going to jelly. With the finish line in sight I had one last look behind, put my head down and to my shock crossed the line first.”

The win was not only a great result for Chris, who earned his Cat 2 licence in the process, but was also the perfect wedding gift from James as Chris flew back to Australia to get married a few days later. Well done guys, awesome teamwork, great tactics and a beautiful result.

Nathan Smith had a fairytale start to the season and celebrated in style with a ‘rocking my baby’ victory salute when he won the highly contested ‘Spring Chicken Road Race’, held in Buckinghamshire in mid-March.

The win – which also earned Nathan a brand new Cat 2 licence – was all the more impressive given that he’d had just become a proud father to Olympic hopeful Casper Smith the month before and so hadn’t trained at all.

For the full story and to find out more about this fantastic win you can read the full race report on the British Cycling website.

Chapeau!

This winter has seen London Phoenix racing on a weekly basis over at Hog Hill, a purpose built, 2km cycle track nestled on the top of a windy ridge in North East London. This great venue offers riders and spectators alike stunning panoramas, along with a cafe, changing rooms and showers, off-road trails and bike hire facilities.

Affectionally known as the Hoggenberg – in reference to the short but punishing climbs found in and around Flanders -, the hill at Hog Hill is challenging to say the least. During the course of an hour long race riders sprint up it between 20 and 30 times, and just getting round and sticking with the bunch is an achievement that can take a few weeks to master.

Filmed in early February, this video features Matt Harper, Chris Dick, James Wallace and Ben Knowles in the E/1/2/3 Cat race (riders are classified by British Cycling points scored over a season, ranging from 4th Cat to Elite), with Matt and Ben earning valuable points by finishing in the top ten.

You can find out more about racing with Phoenix by getting in touch. You don’t need to be super fit, just up for the challenge!

A mixed day out for London Phoenix, with some of our earlier riders dismayed to find many of the smaller lanes on this season opener frozen over and largely unrideable.

Those with later start times tended to fair better with the slippery stuff, but of course we were all seriously challenged by the tough climbs that make up this beautiful route. All that is apart from Chris Dick, Alex Christians, James Wallace and newcomer Dan Ward – who all put in storming rides and finished as the fastest 6 riders on the day. Oh, and of course Annabel who was fastest woman!

Well done guys and gals, and needless to say I’m now working hard on the training plan after the pasting I got!

2010 has seen a dream start for two teams. Both are new kids on the block as far as road racing goes. Both have incredible individual talents onboard and a truly great team ethos. Both teams won their first races of the season. Both have achieved stunning 1-2 victories against stiff competition. Both could win a Grand Tour this year, BUT only one of these teams is suffering from “delusions of grandeur”…..

So, while Team Sky have had the most media coverage with their successes Down Under, the slightly lesser known London Phoenix have had an equally brilliant start to proceedings here at home – so good in fact that we are currently ranked 4th nationally! OK, so this quirk of how the British Cycling points system works has played comically into our hands given the season has yet to begin for the Big Boys, but still, we’ve had riders racing pretty much every weekend over the winter, and to say we’re excited about the season to come would be somewhat of an understatement.

So, to find out how easy it is to start racing (road, MTB, cross or track) for the best team in London with ‘London’ in it’s name, just get in touch.

Despite the biblical weather conditions, London Phoenix had one of its best ever results this weekend when the powerhouse that is Robert Moore got into a five man break at Hillingdon, and then went on to get 2nd in the hotly contested E,1,2,3 race (you can read his race report here).

In total we had 3 podium places over the weekend, with Nathan Smith now in touching distance of his Cat 2 licence following another 2nd place, and James Wallace getting his 3rd Cat licence after bagging 3rd spot at the notorious Hog Hill, and with Matt Harper, Ben Knowles, Andrew Angwin and Stuart Lockyear all getting valuable points too.

Well done to everyone who raced, and chapeau to those who were in the points. To find out how easy it is to start racing just get in touch.

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